ST. LOUIS–It was fitting that on the night the New York Yankees flamed out with barely a whimper in Detroit, the St. Louis Cardinals moved one win from their second consecutive trip to the World Series and a chance to win their third championship since 2006.

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Matt Carpenter has a lot to be excited about.

This is going to be painful for all those clubs and fans in the northeast corridor who believe the heart of baseball beats along I-95 between Boston and Philadelphia. Barring a catastrophic collapse the St. Louis Cardinals are Major League Baseball’s model franchise at the moment, a drama-free, fearless team that doesn’t quit until the final strike and wins championships with a payroll about half the size of the Yankees’.

The Cardinals drubbed Tim Lincecum and the San Francisco Giants 8-3 at Busch Stadium Thursday night in a game that wasn’t that close. The Cardinals scored twice in the first inning off the two-time Cy Young award winner, then chased him from the game in the fifth when Matt Carpenter pounded a double off the wall in right center and Matt Holliday followed that with a single to center. Holliday scored two batters later on Yadier Molina’s single. Lincecum, who’d been banished to the bullpen at the start of the playoffs, sulked off to the dugout and the rout was on. Cardinals starter Adam Wainwright gave up a solo home run to Hunter Pence and a triple to Angel Pagan but not much else in seven innings of four-hit work.

All of this unfolded in front of 47,062, red-clad, towel-waving fans who consider themselves the most educated and dedicated in baseball. It’s hard to argue with them. The Cardinals draw three million fans in their sleep these days, and there is baseball chatter in the locker rooms of yoga studios here in the heartland–trust me on this. Good luck finding that in Brooklyn or the Back Bay.

What should make this all especially painful for the Yankees and their faithful to watch is that the Cardinals are putting on this little show 10 months after they decided to let their former star slugger Albert Pujols walk. For those in need of a refresher, Pujols, who’d spent his entire career with the Cardinals, signed a 10-year, $240 million contract with the Los Angeles Angels in December after the Cardinals made it clear that another decade and that much money simply wasn’t worth it for a star already on the wrong side of 30.

In 2007 the Yankees were faced with a similar choice about Alex Rodriguez. He had a little clause in his contract that allowed him to become a free agent seven years into what was then a 10-year $252 million deal originally signed with the Texas Rangers. He did, and for the first part of that winter it looked like Rodriguez and the Yankees were finished.

But then came the new 10-year deal worth some $275 million. It hasn’t been all bad. The Yankees have only missed the playoffs once since then, and they won it all in 2009 when Rodriguez had an uncommonly strong post-season. That seems a very long time ago now, especially with the Cardinals showing there is an alternative to writing the fat check to arguably the best hitter in baseball if it commits absurd dollars to the years of inevitable deterioration.

The decision the Cardinals made came down to a certain faith in themselves and their fans.

“The fans here are tolerant but passionate,” general manager John Mozeliak said Thursday. “And one really great quality they also have is that they demand winning.”

But the Cardinals trusted that they had made some good decisions in recent years and could make up for Pujols’s production with the likes of Allen Craig and David Freese. The names aren’t nearly as sexy but they believed the fans would understand the grand plan. “We thought we had a great ball club coming into this season,” owner William DeWitt Jr., said the other night.

Looks like they were right. A win will give the Cardinals a 19th National League pennant and a shot to become the first repeat world champs in a dozen years. The last team to do it – the 2000 Yankees. How fitting.

Comments (5 of 8)

What a wonderful article about our Red Birds! You did us proud and all of Cardinal Nation thanks you most graciously!

11:35 am October 19, 2012

michael wrote:

The cards are amazing. Close it out tonight baby!!

8:34 am October 19, 2012

Nats Fan wrote:

Hey Futterman, Check out the NL East standings for this year. The I-95 corridor now extends all the way to Washington. That said, all respect to the Cardinals. This is shaping up to be a great World Series. Best rotation in baseball against the best offense in baseball.

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